“Because the song he’s working on right now?” she said. “It’s amazing. It would be really good for him to play it for an audience and gauge some reactions.”

I was confused. “Is Jake starting a new band?” I couldn’t think of any other time he’d wanted to test out new material.

Clover gave me a curious look before she laughed. “Just talk to Jake about it. It would be really good for him. Promise.” She glanced over her shoulder and then turned back to my mom. “It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she said, releasing my chair. “Good to see you guys again,” she said to Bianca and Ally before she joined her father and disappeared from the dining room.

“She seems nice,” Mom said after we watched her leave. “Absolutely stunning, too. I didn’t realize you girls were friends with Malcolm Davies’s daughter.”

“That’s using ‘friends’ very lightly,” I mumbled as the server placed pancakes before me. I thanked him, ignoring my mother’s side-eye glare, and said more clearly, “I’m sure he has a perfectly good legal team at his disposal, Mom.”

“I like her,” Ally said. She began picking at the granola atop her parfait. “She doesn’t flaunt her dad’s celebrity like a bunch of other kids do. Like, she’s normal.”

Bianca nodded. “Agreed.” She held up a forkful of her frittata and looked at me. “I think we should all just go to this open mic thingy and tell Jake we’ll be there.”

“We should.” Ally’s eyes were bright, almost hopeful, and she was more animated than she had been in days. I couldn’t help but feel she was up to something, but I was willing to do almost anything to get her to stop moping — and that included indulging whatever secret plot popped into her brain.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Jake was in the music room before school started the next morning. I found him there, playing the same song I’d heard him working on the night we kissed. My face grew hot at the memory of it.

“I’ll catch you when you fall,” he sang softly. “I’ll stay with you tonight and always. My heart and soul can’t lie. I’ll kiss your tears and hold you tight.” The tempo was faster, almost like it was a pop song and not the slow ballad I’d heard a couple of weeks ago.

He stopped suddenly and shook his head. “No, no, no,” Jake muttered. “That should be….” He strummed a series of chords and wrote something into the notebook on the music stand before him. He played it again, this time without singing. “Yeah, that’s better.”

“Hey,” I said from the doorway.

His head shot up, and he quickly closed the binder. “Oh! Hey.” He lowered his guitar onto a nearby stand and stood, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Huh? No, it’s — it’s cool. I probably need to wrap it up, anyway.”

I nodded, trying to hide my disappointment. I wanted him to keep playing. “That’s the song you were working on the other night, right?” I kept my voice as light as possible, but my mouth was dry.

Jake nodded as he packed up his gig bag. “It still doesn’t feel right, though. Clover says it’s because it’s the most personal one I’ve written, but….” He shoved his hair out of his eyes and glanced at me. It was one of those quick, fleeting looks that I would’ve missed if I wasn’t focused on him, but there was something about it that seemed kind of squirrelly. It was almost like he was nervous.

Or maybe he felt guilty about something.

Well, at least that made two of us.

I pushed that thought aside and swallowed hard. “You’ll nail it,” I said with what I hoped was an encouraging smile. “You always do.”

“Thanks.” He put his guitar case into a tall cabinet and locked it. The music room was the only place with lockers large enough to hold valuable instruments so students wouldn’t need to schlep them around all day or, if they were old enough to drive, leave them in their cars. Not a lot of kids used them, but there were always a few people every year who brought in their own equipment.

Jake slung his backpack onto his shoulders and paused, motioning for me to step into the hallway. I did and fell into step beside him.

I watched my bootlaces bounce up and down as we walked. “So, Clover said something about an open mic night coming up. Ally thinks we should go.”

“Oh, you saw Clover?”

“Yesterday. We were having brunch at Lakeridge, and she stopped by our table.” I waited a beat before I said, “I guess she didn’t mention it?”

“No, I haven’t talked to her since last Thursday, I think.”

My head snapped up. “Really? So what’d you do this weekend?”

“Hung out with Finn,” he said with a shrug. “Worked. Did some homework.” We stopped at his locker. “You know, exciting stuff.”

“Did you study for Ellison’s test?”

“Uh, no.” He opened his locker, grabbed a notebook, and slammed the door shut. “I didn’t want to get too crazy.”

I smiled, relieved he was cracking jokes again. The last week had been tense between us, and while I knew at least part of that was my fault, I missed our easy banter.

And I really missed his hugs.

I cleared my throat. “Hey, I know I’ve been all weird and whatever lately,” I said.

“Lately?” A corner of his mouth curved upward in an amused grin.

“Okay, weirder than usual.”

“That’s better.” He laughed, and I relished the sound of it. I hadn’t realized how much I needed our daily interactions. It made it harder to apologize, but I knew no matter what had happened between us, I still wanted us to be friends.

“So, anyway, I’m sorry for being all freakish and stuff.” I swallowed hard. “And for getting all weirded out after….” I let the words hang in the air because I didn’t want to say it. To admit jealousy was to reveal the worst type of weakness, but Jake just stared at me, his eyebrows raised as he waited for me to continue. I cleared my throat again. “I mean, I guess it’s not really any of my business if you….” I stopped again. I normally didn’t have trouble saying what was on my mind, but I was getting flustered. “You’re going to make me spell it out, aren’t you?” I blurted.

He furrowed his brow, confused. “Uh, yeah, because I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”

I let out a sigh, but it came out more like a huff. “I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been a total brat, and I’m apologizing. Can we just leave it at that?”

A lopsided smile slowly crept across his face. “Sure.” He put his arm around my shoulders and steered me in the direction of my homeroom class as the first bell rang. I rested my head against his chest as we walked.

It felt good for us to be back to normal.

“So, open mic night,” I said. “Clover says you aren’t interested.”

“It’s not my thing. I’m not so good as a frontman. That’s why Zack and I got along. We didn’t compete.”

That was the first time he’d mentioned his former bandmate in weeks. I knew things were tenuous at best between them, but I still said, “Have you talked to him lately?”

“Zack? Not really.” He paused. “Did you hear Clover’s dad’s piecing together another band?” he said as we turned into the hall where my class was.

“Like one of those boy bands?”

“Well, they don’t have to be boys, but yeah. Something like that.”

I didn’t say anything, waiting for him to tell me he’d already been handpicked to be part of it, but he didn’t elaborate.

Ally was approaching the classroom from the opposite direction when I spotted her. I called out her name, and she gave us a sad smile with a halfhearted wave.

“Is she okay?” Jake sounded concerned.

“She kind of was yesterday.” I broke away from him and skirted past a group of girls standing in the middle of the hall to reach her. “Hey,” I said, giving her a half-hug. “You okay?”

“Meh.” She frowned. “I’ll live.”

“What’s up, Katz?” Jake wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.